Re: All this talk of a new GS...

[Jonas Bevren <jbevren@burninghorizon.com>]

On Sun, 13 Feb 2000, Phoenyx wrote:

> Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2000 21:08:48 -0600
> From: Phoenyx <quazar@dcnet2000.com>
> Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
> Subject: Re: All this talk of a new GS...
> 
> Most OEM's are conservative on their ratings, especially Intel.
> It helps to build a good reputation. A while back, I remember
> reading a spec from Intel which stated they test for the most
> reliable speed and then reduce by 10%. At least I think that
> was the figure they used. I don't think they are doing this any
> more except maybe with the Celeron. All the P2 cpu's I have
> worked with won't tolerate over clocking. The Celeron though

Thats because the newer CPUs (at least from intel) measure the bus speed
you're trying to run them at before booting, and decide if it's the speed
they're programmed to run at.  It's not that they cant run at an
overclocked speed.  In fact, it's just that they wont.  Intel did this
because so many of their cpu's were easily overclockable.

Another reason Celerons are so overclockable is because they lack the
on-chip cache that PIIs have.  It gives wannabes the ability to say "I have
a 450mhz celeron", but in fact, a 450mhz celeron is nowhere near as fast as
a 400mhz pII due to its lack of onchip cache.  If you could imagine a zipGSX
with full compliment of cache running at 8 mhz, and a cacheless zipGSX
without any cache at all at 16mhz, I'll give you one guess which will
outperform the other.  =)

> will, but if it's highly over clocked the system will report an
> incorrect speed. For example, I over clocked a Celeron 300 to

Yep.  Those are rounding errors (marketing ploys). =)

> the max the board would allow. The bios claimed 450 mhz, but
> Linux reported a more accurate speed of 380. This was just a
> test though, to prove a point to another fellow who swore his
> system was running at 450. I normally discourage over clocking
> a system unless there is no other way to speed things up. Some
> times, this 'enhancement' can lead to serious and hard to find
> system problems.

Quick tip on overclocking a PC: Dont. =) Just get what you want. 
Overclocking a PC is like running a 4cylinder in a heavy truck.. You're
bound to have problems when a heavy load comes up.

> I have found that most of the older cpu's were more tolerant of
> over clocking. I expect that this is mainly due to the extra

Yep.. I have a 133mhz 80486 running at 160mhz =)

> heat and possibly timing. As example of a heat issue. My AMD
> 500 system was a little flaky when I first put it together. It
> would give random failures and core dumps in Linux. When the
> cpu fan gave out, it trashed the data on both hd's. Well, I
> replaced the fan with a larger cooling system and have had no
> trouble with this at all.
> 
> Every time I work on a PC, I realize why I love the Apple 2!
> 

PC's are a headache.  Sadly, it's still a requirement for some things due to
the pushes in the market. =(

-Jonas